Can you really tell if a kid is lying——你真的能识破孩子的谎言吗

Kang Lee: Can you really tell if a kid is lying

李康: 你真的可以识破孩子的谎言么?

Hi. Let me ask the audience a question: Did you ever lie as a child? If you did, could you please raise your hand? Wow! This is the most honest group of people I've ever met.

大家好我先问大家一个问题：作为一个孩子的时候您撒过谎么？如果有过可以举手么？天啊！这是我遇见过的最诚实的一群人.

So for the last 20 years, I've been studying how children learn to tell lies. And today, I'm going to share with you some of the discoveries we have made.

在过去的二十年，我一直在研究孩子们如何学会撒谎。今天我将与给分享我们的一些成果。

But to begin, I'm going to tell you a story from Mr. Richard Messina, who is my friend and an elementary school principal. He got a phone call one day. The caller says, "Mr. Messina, my son Johnny will not come to school today because he's sick."

不过首先我想先讲一个理查德—梅西纳先生的故事。他是我的朋友，也是一名小学校长。一天他接到了一通电话，来电的人说：“梅西纳先生，我的孩子乔尼今天不去学校了，因为他生病了。

Mr. Messina asks, "Who am I speaking to, please?"

梅西纳先生问道“请问您是谁？”

And the caller says, "I am my father."

来电的人说：“我是我爸爸。”

So this story -- sums up very nicely three common beliefs we have about children and lying. One, children only come to tell lies after entering elementary school. Two, children are poor liars. We adults can easily detect their lies. And three, if children lie at a very young age, there must be some character flaws with them, and they are going to become pathological liars for life. Well, it turns out all of the

three beliefs are wrong.

所以这个故事--很好的总结了三个我们对于孩子撒谎的常识。第一，孩子通常在上小学后开始撒谎。第二，孩子不会撒谎成人可以简单地识破他们。第三，如果孩子很早就开始撒谎那么他们一定有一些人格缺陷，并且一生都将是病态的撒谎者。然而结果是，这三个认识都是错的

We have been playing guessing games with children all over the world. Here is an example. So in this game, we asked children to guess the numbers on the cards. And we tell them if they win the game, they are going to get a big prize. But in the middle of the game, we make an excuse and leave the room. And before we leave the room, we tell them not to peek at the cards. Of course, we have hidden cameras in the room to watch their every move. Because the desire to win the game is so strong, more than 90 percent of children will peek as soon as we leave the room.

之前我们一直和全世界的孩子们一起玩竞猜游戏。这里有一个例子。在这个游戏中，我们请孩子们猜测卡片上的数字。并告诉他们如果他们猜中了，他们会得到丰厚的奖励。在游戏的中间，我们会借故离开。离开前会告诉孩子们不要去偷偷看卡片。当然了，隐藏的摄像头在房间观察孩子们的一举一动。因为孩子太想赢这个游戏，超过90%的孩子在我们离开后马上偷偷看了卡片。(Laughter)

The crucial question is: When we return and ask the children whether or not they have peeked, will the children who peeked confess or lie about their transgression?

关键的问题是：当然们回来并且问孩子们他们是否偷看了卡片时，那些偷看了卡片的孩子会承认他们违反了游戏规则么？

We found that regardless of gender, country, religion, at two years of age, 30 percent lie, 70 percent tell the truth about their transgression. At three years of age, 50 percent lie and 50 percent tell the truth. At four years of age, more than 80 percent lie. And after four years of age, most children lie. So as you can see, lying is really a typical part of development. And some children begin to tell lies as young

as two years of age.

我们发现无论性别国籍宗教信仰30%的2岁孩子撒谎了。70%承认了他们违反游戏规则。三岁的孩子中，撒谎的人占了50%。四岁的孩子超过80%都在撒谎。大于四岁的孩子绝大部分都在撒谎。如您所见，撒谎是成长典型的一部分。很多孩子在2岁的时候就已经学会了撒谎。

So now, let's take a closer look at the younger children. Why do some but not all young children lie? In cooking, you need good ingredients to cook good food. And good lying requires two key ingredients. The first key ingredient is theory of mind, or the mind-reading ability. Mind reading is the ability to know that different people have different knowledge about the situation and the ability to differentiate between what I know and what you know. Mind reading is important for lying because the basis of lying is that I know you don't know what I know. Therefore, I can lie to you.

现在我们仔细研究小孩子。为什么不是所有的孩子都撒谎？在烹饪领域想做出好的食物需要好的原料。一个好的谎言需要两个关键的原料。第一个是心智理论，换言之读心的能力。读心能力是一种知道相同情况下不同的人知道不同的事情的能力，是一种可以区分我知道什么和你知道什么的能力。读心在撒谎时能力很重要因为撒谎从根本上说就是我知道你不知道我知道。因此我的谎言成功了。

The second key ingredient for good lying is self-control. It is the ability to control your speech, your facial expression and your body language, so that you can tell a convincing lie. And we found that those young children who have more advanced mind-reading and self-control abilities tell lies earlier and are more sophisticated liars. As it turns out, these two abilities are also essential for all of us to function well in our society. In fact, deficits in mind-reading and self-control abilities are associated with serious developmental problems, such as ADHD and autism. So if you discover your two-year-old is telling his or her first lie, instead of being

alarmed, you should celebrate --

第二个撒谎的关键因素是自我控制控制语言控制面部表情控制身体动作。这样的谎言才让人信服。我们发现那些小孩子中读心能力和自我控制能力更强的更早开始说谎也成为了更老练的撒谎者。事实证明这两种能力在社会中也是至关重要的。并且读心能力和自我控制能力不足经常和一些严重的发展问题比如多动症和自闭症联系在一起。所以当你发现你二岁的孩子开始撒谎不要惊慌你应该庆幸

because it signals that your child has arrived at a new milestone of typical development.

Now, are children poor liars? Do you think you can easily detect their lies? Would you like to give it a try? Yes? OK. So I'm going to show you two videos. In the videos, the children are going to respond to a researcher's question, "Did you peek?" So try to tell me which child is lying and which child is telling the truth. Here's child number one. Are you ready?

这意味着你的孩子进入了典型发展的新的里程碑。

那么孩子不会撒谎么？你可以轻易的识破他们的谎言么？你愿意试试么？愿意？好的我将要给各位看两段视频。视频中孩子们将会回答研究者的问题“你偷看了卡片么？”试着告诉我哪一个孩子撒谎那一个孩子说真话。这是第一个孩子。准备好了么？

OK, if you think child number one is lying, please raise your hand. And if you think child number two is lying, please raise your hand. OK, so as a matter of fact, child number one is telling the truth, child number two is lying. Looks like many of you are terrible detectors of children's lies.

认为第一个孩子撒谎的，请举手。认为第二个孩子撒谎的，请举手事实上，第一个孩子说的是真话第二个孩子在撒谎看起来大家完全无法识破孩子的谎言。

Now, we have played similar kinds of games with many, many adults from all walks of life. And we show them many videos. In half of the videos, the children lied. In the other half of the videos, the children told the truth. And let's find out how these adults performed. Because there are as many liars as truth tellers, if you

guess randomly, there's a 50 percent chance you're going to get it right. So if your accuracy is around 50 percent, it means you are a terrible detector of children's lies.

现在我们给很多从事各种行业的成年人播放类似的视频。视频中一半的孩子撒谎了。另一半的孩子讲了真话。让我们看看成人识破谎言的表现。因为说真话和假话的孩子各一半，如果你随机的猜，你的正确率差不多50%。所以如果你的准确率在50%左右，说明你看不出孩子的谎言。

So let's start with undergrads and law school students, who typically have limited experience with children. No, they cannot detect children's lies. Their performance is around chance.

我们先从和小孩子的交集有限的本科生和法学院学生开始。不他们看不出孩子撒谎了，他们只是随机的猜测。

Now how about social workers and child-protection lawyers, who work with children on a daily basis? Can they detect children's lies? No, they cannot.

那么每天和孩子打交道的社会工作者和保护儿童的律师做得如何呢？他们可以分辨孩子的谎言么？不他们不能。

What about judges, customs officers and police officers, who deal with liars on a daily basis? Can they detect children's lies? No, they cannot.

法官呢？海关官员，或者警察呢？他们每天都在面对谎言，他们可以看出孩子撒谎么？不他们不能。

What about parents? Can parents detect other children's lies? No, they cannot. What about, can parents detect their own children's lies? No, they cannot.

父母呢？父母可以看出别的孩子撒谎么？不他们不能。

那么父母可以看出自己的孩子撒谎么？不还是不能。

So now you may ask why children's lies are so difficult to detect. Let me illustrate this with my own son, Nathan. This is his facial expression when he lies.

现在你可能会问为什么孩子的谎言不容易被识破?让我用我的儿子内森来说明。这是他撒谎时的面部表情。

So when children lie, their facial expression is typically neutral. However, behind

this neutral expression, the child is actually experiencing a lot of emotions, such as fear, guilt, shame and maybe a little bit of liar's delight.

所以孩子撒谎是他们的面部表情是很自然的。然而在自然的表情背后孩子在体验一系列的感情有害怕，内疚，羞耻也许还有一点骗人的喜悦。

Unfortunately, such emotions are either fleeting or hidden. Therefore, it's mostly invisible to us.

可是这些表情或一闪而过或被隐藏的很好对于我们来说很难捕捉。

So in the last five years, we have been trying to figure out a way to reveal these hidden emotions. Then we made a discovery.

所以过去的五年中我们一直在寻找挖掘隐藏的表情的办法。后来我们有了发现。

We know that underneath our facial skin, there's a rich network of blood vessels. When we experience different emotions, our facial blood flow changes subtly. And these changes are regulated by the autonomic system that is beyond our conscious control. By looking at facial blood flow changes, we can reveal people's hidden emotions. Unfortunately, such emotion-related facial blood flow changes are too subtle to detect by our naked eye. So to help us reveal people's facial emotions, we have developed a new imaging technology we call "transdermal optical imaging."

我们知道在脸的皮肤下面是丰富的血管网络。在我们经历不同的情感的时候，我们面部血液流动也会稍微改变。这些改变受自动系统的控制人为无法刻意改变。通过观察面部血液流动变化，我们可以发现人们隐藏的表情。不过这种情感相关的血液流动太过于微小以至于肉眼无法看到。所以我们设计了新的图像技术来帮助我们捕捉人们的面部表情。我们叫它“透皮光学成像”。

To do so, we use a regular video camera to record people when they experience various hidden emotions. And then, using our image processing technology, we can extract transdermal images of facial blood flow changes. By looking at transdermal video images, now we can easily see facial blood flow changes associated with the various hidden emotions. And using this technology, we can now reveal the hidden

emotions associated with lying, and therefore detect people's lies. We can do so noninvasively, remotely, inexpensively, with an accuracy at about 85 percent, which is far better than chance level.

我们用普通的镜头记录正在经历着各种隐藏的感情的人然后使用图像处理技术我们可以通过观察经皮视频，提取面部血液流动的经皮图像。现在我们可以清楚地看到由于各种隐藏的表情造成的血液流动。使用这个技术我们可以判断与撒谎相关的隐藏表情进而识破人们的谎言。我们可以在不侵害被试者的情况下远程地廉价地进行操作并且有85%的准确率，比随机要好得多。

And in addition, we discovered a Pinocchio effect. No, not this Pinocchio effect.

此外我们发现了匹诺曹现象。不不不不是这个现象。

This is the real Pinocchio effect. When people lie, the facial blood flow on the cheeks decreases, and the facial blood flow on the nose increases.

这是真的匹诺曹现象。当人们撒谎时，脸颊的面部血液流动减少鼻子的血液流动增加。

Of course, lying is not the only situation that will evoke our hidden emotions. So then we asked ourselves, in addition to detecting lies, how can our technology be used? One application is in education. For example, using this technology, we can help this mathematics teacher to identify the student in his classroom who may experience high anxiety about the topic he's teaching so that he can help him.

当然撒谎并不是激发隐藏表情的唯一情况。所以我们思考，除了测试谎言之外，这项技术还可以用来做什么？在教育领域可以应用这门技术。比如使用这项技术可以帮助这位数学老师发现那些教室里对于他讲的内容深感焦虑的学生。这可以很好地帮助老师。

And also we can use this in health care. For example, every day I Skype my parents, who live thousands of miles away. And using this technology, I can not only find out what's going on in their lives but also simultaneously monitor their heart rate, their stress level, their mood and whether or not they are experiencing pain. And perhaps in the future, their risks for heart attack or hypertension. And you may ask:

Can we use this also to reveal politicians' emotions?

这门技术同时可以用在健康护理上。比如每天我和离我几千公里的父母Skype，使用这门技术，我不仅可以知道他们那里发生了什么同时我可以监测他们的心率紧张程度他们的情绪或者是否处于痛苦之中。也许将来心脏病和高血压的风险也可以被检测出来也许你会问：我们可以识破政客的表情么？

For example, during a debate. Well, the answer is yes. Using TV footage, we could detect the politicians' heart rate, mood and stress, and perhaps in the future, whether or not they are lying to us. We can also use this in marketing research, for example, to find out whether or not people like certain consumer products.

比如在辩论中的表情是的我们可以。使用电视新闻片段，我们可以检测政客的心率，情绪紧张程度，也许将来也可以判断他们是否在说谎。这项技术也可以用于市场调查，比如去探究人们喜不喜欢特定的消费产品。

We can even use it in dating. So for example, if your date is smiling at you, this technology can help you to determine whether she actually likes you or she is just trying to be nice to you. And in this case, she is just trying to be nice to you.

我们甚至可以用在约会上。比如，如果你的约会对象对你笑，这门技术可以帮助你判断她是真的喜欢你还是只是努力对你友善一些。在这个照片中，她只是想对他友善一点。

So transdermal optical imaging technology is at a very early stage of development. Many new applications will come about that we don't know today. However, one thing I know for sure is that lying will never be the same again.

所以透皮光学成像技术仅仅处于起步阶段。将来会有更多意想不到的新应用出现。然而我坚信研究谎言的未来将会因此变得不同。

Thank you very much.

谢谢大家